What to read (and watch) to understand refugees

THE NUMBERS are grim. Around the world, last year, the stock of people forced from their homes reached nearly 90m, more than at any time since the second world war. That tally included many people displaced within their own countries. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added millions more this year. And whereas fleeing Ukrainians have mostly received warm welcomes, many refugees are compelled to follow ever more perilous routes in search of safety, or blocked by borders that are increasingly hard to cross. Fully 83% of the world’s refugees land in poor and middle-income countries. Politicians in rich countries mostly want them to stay there. Some refuse even to recognise the long-recognised right to seek asylum. Most offer too little help to host countries. To understand why and how people flee, turn to these seven books and one documentary.

Refugees: A Very Short Introduction. By Gil Loescher. Oxford University Press; 152 pages; $11.95 and £8.99

This slim volume is an excellent introduction to the history and politics of forced migration. What are its main causes? What is the difference between a refugee and an asylum-seeker? Why is a victim of political persecution more likely to receive protection than a victim of climate change? Gil Loescher, a giant in the field of refugee studies, worked for decades to advocate for refugee rights. A suicide bombing in Baghdad in 2003 left him a double amputee. Loescher nonetheless continued to work until his death in 2020. Loescher was wary of becoming an “armchair academic”; his book is grounded in decades of fieldwork and interviews. His writing is clear, persuasive and prescient: in the concluding chapter, he warns that climate change could displace some 200m people by 2050.

Refuge. By Alexander Betts and Paul Collier. Oxford University Press; 288 pages; $18.95. Penguin; £10.99

The term “refugee crisis” refers to the miseries of mass displacement. But it also, say Alexander Betts and Paul Collier, describes inadequate policy which needs to be rethought. Take the idea of dumping refugees in big camps—which is neither effective nor humane. These are not temporary places of shelter: many refugees stay in camps for years; many children grow up in them. Instead, they say, refugees should receive more long-term help, in the form of education and jobs. Without better help, they say, “lives become focused more on survival than hope.” (Read our full review, from 2017.)

Go, Went, Gone. By Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky. New Directions; 320 pages; $16.95. Portobello Books; £14.99

Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Germany. So too is the narrator of this novel, Richard, a retired professor and widower. Both know something about being from the wrong side of a border. Yet when Richard encounters a group of African refugees protesting about their lot in Berlin, he is surprised and discomfited to realise how little he knows about them. Where is Burkina Faso? he wonders. There follows the story of his attempts to help and befriend the outsiders. They are men who have survived hardships and now want the right to work. The German government, on the other hand, wants them out of sight and out of mind. Ms Erpenbeck’s novel, translated from German, sets empathetic individuals against government hostility. Richard asks: “Must living in peace—so fervently wished for throughout human history and yet enjoyed in only a few parts of the world—inevitably result in refusing to share it with those seeking refuge”? Since the book’s publication in 2015, Germany, to its great credit, has been more welcoming to refugees than most rich countries. (Read our full review of the novel.)

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You. By Dina Nayeri. Catapult; 368 pages; $16.95. Canongate Books; £10.99
The Undocumented Americans. By Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. One World; 208 pages; $17. Swift Press; £12.99

Both these books blend memoir and reportage. Each also tells the story of a person who fled hardship, made it to America, then prospered. Dina Nayeri, an Iranian refugee, attended Princeton and Harvard. Karla Villavicencio, originally from Ecuador, became one of Harvard’s first “undocumented” students, meaning she was allowed to study there even though her legal status in America had not been confirmed. Yet both authors focus their attention on the difficulties that even the most successful refugees and economic migrants face. Ms Nayeri writes that she was bullied, abused and resettled in homes for the “destitute and disenfranchised”. She argues that refugees should not feel compelled to express gratitude for the help they receive. Ms Villavencio uses her privileged position to turn attention to those less fortunate, who find only menial and low-paid work. Both write movingly about the individual lives affected, such as Leonel Chávez, an Ecuadorian man who manages to remain in America by refusing to leave the church where he has found sanctuary.

The Naked Don’t Fear the Water. By Matthieu Aikins. Harper; 336 pages; $27.99. Fitzcarraldo Editions; £12.99

How does a journalist report on a refugee’s flight? One way is to take part in it. In 2016 a Canadian, Matthieu Aikins, shared the plight of his Afghan friend (whom he calls Omar) on the arduous route from Afghanistan to Europe. Mr Aikins left his passport with a friend in case of emergency; Omar had no such back-up. That fundamental difference between the two men’s situation can sit uneasily with Mr Aikins’s lyrical storytelling. Still, he powerfully relays the powerlessness of refugees, whether at the mercy of smugglers, or the vagaries of the asylum system, or the perilous Mediterranean. For most of those desperate to flee their homelands, there is simply no way to “get in line” and seek resettlement. (Read our full review of a devastatingly intimate insight into the refugee crisis, from February 2022.)

My Fourth Time, We Drowned. By Sally Hayden. Melville House Publishing; 448 pages; $29.99. HarperCollins Publishers; £20

Sally Hayden, a journalist, began investigating a massive human-rights scandal in August 2018–after she received a message on Facebook from a man held in a Libyan prison for migrants. European taxpayers, she learned, were bankrolling terrible abuse. The Libyan Coast Guard, funded, trained and given operational support by the European Union, intercepted migrants who were trying to reach Europe by sea. They were then dispatched to detention facilities in Libya, where murder, rape and assault were common. The book is filled with grim details. Detainees’ relatives shared photos of their tortured bodies on social media in hope of raising money for them to bribe their way out. Employees of UNHCR, the UN refugees agency, were ineffective in part because the majority of them who worked on Libya were based in Tunisia. Ms Hayden claims that the ill-treatment of the refugees was well known to European officials. “What happened to refugees forced back to Libya was not a secret”, she writes.

Captains of Za’atari. Directed by Ali El Arabi, starring Fawzi Qatleesh and Mahmoud Dagher. Ambient Light; available to stream on Hulu and Dogwoof

The Za’atari camp, in northern Jordan, is the largest camp for Syrian refugees, hosting some 80,000 people. Jordan, a country of 10m, has over 3m refugees. Ali El Arabi’s documentary tells the story of two teenage football fanatics, Fawzi and Mahmoud, who are offered a shot at leaving the camp by a Qatari football academy. Its protagonists are typical teenagers who tease each other about girls and marvel at their football heroes. “Captains of Za’atari” opens a window onto life in a camp: when Mahmoud’s father rebukes him for skipping school, Mahmoud retorts, “Even if I have a degree, I’ll still be a refugee.” When dozens crowd into a small room to watch Fawzi’s and Mahmoud’s first televised match, the television malfunctions. Za’atari was created as a temporary home for displaced Syrians. Ten years on the camp remains, with no better future in sight for its residents.■